11 Perfect Restaurants For Vegetarians In St. Louis

11 Perfect Restaurants For Vegetarians In St. Louis

Perhaps your vegan cousin is coming to town, or maybe you just streamed one of those nightmare-inducing documentaries about the meat-packing industry on Netflix—or maybe you’ve simply resolved to incorporate more plant-based meals into your diet.

Whatever the reason, finding vegetarian St. Louis restaurants is not the challenge you may think. Better yet, these venues dish out savory, satiating meat-free alternatives. Read on for a roundup of our 10 favorite vegetarian and vegetarian-friendly restaurants in St. Louis.

Photo Credit: Tree House Restaurant

Tree House Vegetarian Restaurant
This veggie, vegan and even raw-friendlySouth Grand restaurant offers breakfast, lunch and dinner plates with flavor profiles from around the world. For weekend brunch, we recommend their chorizo scramble with tofu or egg, or their sausage, Brussels sprouts and sweet potato hash with house-made seitan sausage. A kimchi Bloody Mary and—why not?—a vegan donut completes the meal.

Mud House
This Cherokee Street café serves sandwiches, hashes and egg-centered breakfast plates 7am-4pm to vegetarians and meat eaters alike. This is a great spot to hole up for a day with a $4 bottomless cup of coffee to get some work done while enjoying simple, substantial meals made with quality ingredients and thoughtful touches like homemade pickled red onions and a gingersnap cookie to accompany your cup of hot tea. Bonus: their patio is great for warm weather.

Photo Credit: SweetArt

SweetArt
You can tell how much this family-owned bakery, café and art studio cares about the products it puts into the world the moment you walk in the door. With co-owner Cbabi Bayoc’s paintings on the walls and dishes like the Maya Angelou Plate and Bell Hook’s House Nachos, SweetArt celebrates Black identity and St. Louis’ diverse community. They use sustainable and locally-sourced ingredients whenever possible and keep customers coming back for their addicting cupcakes, vegan treats and stellar Sweet Burger.

Small Batch
The perfect spot for a date night or special-occasion dinner or brunch. With elegant interior design and an impressive craft cocktail menu, Small Batch is the type of upscale restaurant that offers diners an amuse-bouche but also serves non-fussy, generous portions of their global, veggie-friendly fare.

Bahn Mi So
Their website declares they have the “Best Spring Rolls in St. Louis,” and that’s no exaggeration. Don’t go for the hole-in-the-wall ambiance, go for the Mung Bean Spring Rolls made with herbs grown in their own garden and Joe B faux-beef vegetarian bánh mi sandwich (you’ll want to get it with extra “meat”). Meat eaters, rejoice! This restaurant has both meaty and meat-free dishes.

Lulu’s Local Eatery
This 100% vegetarian restaurant in the bustling South Grand neighborhood perfectly exemplifies that meatless dishes can be delicious and filling. From the buffalo cauliflower bites to the sweet potato falafel and sweet potato black bean burger, this casual and sustainable eatery will remind you that making healthy choices with a plant-based diet isn’t so difficult after all.

Confluence Kombucha
Located in the Grove, this Gastrolab serves rotating kombucha flavors on tap and a rotating, Japanese-influenced menu that shines a spotlight on pickled and fermented food. This is a fun restaurant to try a little bit of everything—bring a friend to try a sampler flight of kombucha and their Preservation Exploration chef’s selection of kimchi, pickles and nukazuke. Larger plates include tacos in a seaweed shell and house-made tempeh.

Photo Credit: Bombay Food Junkies

Bombay Food Junkies
This 100 percent vegetarian Indian food truck serves up Chic ’n’ Tikka and Samosa wraps at the Saturday Tower Grove Farmers’ Market and other spots, while their brick-and-mortar restaurant in St. Ann offers an all-you-can-eat menu. A waiter brings you a portion of everything on their four-course menu—potatoes with tangy chutney, spicy noodles and rice, cabbage meatballs in garlic sauce and Mumbai-style street food sandwiches. You’ll be full by the end, but you can have unlimited helpings of anything you’ve just sampled.

Everest Café and Bar
This Grove favorite with tons of veggie options offers Nepalese, Indian and Korean favorites like steamed mo-mo dumplings, vegetable korma, chap chay and bibimbap. Offering fresh, healthy food to the St. Louis area is a priority for Everest, whose owner and executive chef also runs a nonprofit, Himalayan Family Healthcare Project, that provides health and emergency services to Nepal.

Seedz Cafe
Serving 100 percent organic, plant-based food in Demun, Seedz Cafe has great service and menu highlights include a Tempeh Reuben that doesn’t skimp on the sauerkraut, a chickpea-based veggie burger and pizzas that are great for sharing. This is a good spot for a quiet lunch or for a dinner with friends—in addition to fresh juices and smoothies, they also serve homemade sangria and beer and biodynamic wine.